Subscribe to this blog

Subscribe

Search This Blog

Pages

Bad Publicity.

I don't watch too much television. I would if there was time, but my life is so busy nowadays. My main occupation is taking care of the needs of my four schoolgoing children, jostling for a place in the kitchen and juggling my household tasks like laundry, housecleaning, etc. When a little time becomes available, I'd prefer to sit at my computer. I love to read, write and visit blogs. It is a matter of choosing to do the thing which I enjoy most. I catch a bit of television when I'm eating, as the television set is right next to the dining table.

There has been an advertisement for a new reality show (can't for the life of me remember the name!) running for a while. It is a set-up situation type show, where a couple, i.e. one male and one female have to care for an infant for a while. I only know a little about the show, but one of the couples includes Rakhi Sawant, a glamour girl type who is often seen doing singing and dancing numbers in Hindi films - usually comedy films. She is appearing in the show with her recently acquired fiance.

The advertisements are full of shots of a bleary eyed Rakhi, preparing bottles in a kitchen for a screaming infant, trying to pacify the kid all the while. Then, as she rocks the infant to sleep, she complains in an extremely tired voice "why did they give me the baby who never sleeps?", presumeably complaining about the show's organisers. This show has presumeably been done abroad before according to the same formula, with celebrities who are local to the country concerned.

This show will probably make a lot of money for the people concerned and the public will obviously fall about with laughter at the idea of a celebrity glamour girl stuck changing nappies and living in a sleep deprived zombie-like state, a prisoner of the whims of a tiny tyrant baby.

It is not funny at all. It is sinister. And it's horrible publicity for babies!

First of all, in the earliest years, babies should be cared for by familiar people whom they see regularly, whether those people are parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or even hired people like childminders (or 'ayahs' as they are called here in India). To take a tiny child out of it's regular environment and place it in the care of two individuals who don't have a clue about it's needs, is nothing short of cruelty. Even if it is in a monitored and controlled environment.

Secondly, and I'm so sorry to say this but human beings are designed to feed their own babies. Breastfeeding is an extremely unfashionable topic, and some people may find it embarrassing to discuss, especially in mixed company, but it is not some eccentric, backward fad. It is a natural and fuss free way to provide an infant with the nutrition it needs. It is also a very natural way for the mother to develop a strong, loving relationship with her infant. Of course you can still love your baby if you don't breastfeed it, but overall, the infancy of a child seems to go much more smoothly if the child gets the mother's milk. Even a working mother can feed a child if she wants to, provided she has access to the right information and support. There is a lot of modern equipment available to express the milk and the child can be bottle fed by a carer in the mother's absence - with the mother's milk! I met a teacher in Ireland the last time I was home, and she had brought up all her three children that way. "No bottle ever crossed my doorstep when my children were small!" she declared proudly.

My point is that having and rearing babies is not some endless nightmare! It is an amazing experience, and if it is done properly, it can be a joy. Yes, some difficulties come up, but nothing you can't handle comfortably. This stupid upcoming television show is nothing but bad publicity for babies. And babies don't deserve that!

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Comments

These reality shows are a pain, cand do with them nor without the, i hate myself after an episode of watching..really feel, i should have spent it some other way, and rakhi sawant is bleary eyed raisinga kid, what happens when shes doing those idiotic late night dances..she looks fresh then somehow..doesnt she?

There was a time when I used to take pride in the quality of TV programs produced in India.But today the commericial aspect has taken over and the TV chanels are filling their airtimes with little or no intelectual value.Its a pity!But I do agree that it is great experience to bring up a baby with all the hardship that comes with it... it is worth it.

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Many years ago, when I lived in Dublin, I met someone nice and started dating. I wasn't serious, I just thought we could have nice interesting discussions about India, which I found absolutely fascinating, as I was working in the Embassy of India back then. I had no intention of getting attached with a foreigner, with all the attendant cultural problems. I was happy living in Ireland and the idea of marriage couldn't have been further from my mind.

We both thought we could just keep things in control. One day, after a lot of emotional turmoil and denial, it hit us both that we were in love. Truly. Madly. Irrevocably. To the point where we couldn't live without each other. I'd known about the Indian system of arranged marriages and when it occurred to me that he would probably be married off by his family as soon as he returned to India, I felt physically ill at the thought. We are both tenacious and patient people. We realised that bringing our two worlds together would…

What Is Culture? I’m opening this blog
post with a question. What is that elusive concept which is commonly known as
‘culture? Culture is way of life. How we live. What our values are. Our customs, attitudes and perceptions. And
also, I suppose, how we express ourselves in art through, such as music, dance,
theatre and cinema. It’s quite a
comprehensive area and not too easy to define, really.

The Journey I was born in what is
commonly known as ‘the west’. I lived in Ireland for the first thirty years of
my life. When I was thirty, I married my husband and came out to India to live
here with him. That was the beginning of an interesting journey, which is still
evolving. I must have had some east/west comparison stereotypes in my head. But
in India, I found that the people I met had huge stereotypes in their heads
about what they called ‘western culture’ and ‘western way of life’. Not long
after I arrived in India, I was struck by the number of people who said things
to me like ‘in the …

I am originally from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. We have a maritime climate, neither too hot nor too cold. Cool, wet winters and warm summers. We get the odd freak weather condition, like several feet of snow, once in a while to make life interesting. Pretty ideal really.

Now I reside in Lucknow in north India. In the Indo-Gangetic plain. Cold dry winters, roasting hot summers and a humid rainy season. It seems like it's always too hot or too cold. Or too humid. Humidity is something I dread. It brings itching, rashes and all of that. Okay, too hot will work for me. So will too cold (although I hate dry cold, that's energy-sapping). But humidity is .......not at all good. And that's a euphemism if ever there was one,.

I wish to dedicate this post to my beloved and erudite rakhi brother Rummuser, who suggested this topic.

And thanks to freedigitalphotos.net for the above illustration, 'Paper Weather Icon Illustration' by SweetCrisis.